Egypt Holds Interest Rates as New Virus Strain Prompts Caution
Bloomberg 12/24/2020 Mirette Magdy
(Bloomberg) Egypt left interest rates unchanged, putting monetary easing on pause amid fears over the effect of a new strain of the coronavirus on global markets.
The Monetary Policy Committee held the deposit rate at 8.25% and the lending rate at 9.25%, it said Thursday in a statement. The decision was predicted by all 14 economists surveyed by Bloomberg after authorities cut rates by a cumulative 400 basis points this year.
Along with the pandemic, the central bank was also weighing an uptick in November inflation to 5.7%, its highest level in seven months. Despite the increase, the North African nation’s real-interest rate is second-highest only to Malaysia among more than 50 major economies tracked by Bloomberg a key factor in attracting foreign inflows to its local debt market.